Men’s Main Draw berths at SWATCH FIVB PAF Open Tournament 2010
The SWATCH FIVB PAF Open Men’s Tournament entered the Main Draw phase on Thursday, 19th August 2010. The successful teams from Qualification Tournament stepped into the 32-match Main Draw with double-elimination bracket. There weren’t any un-conventional results as the favourite six of the eight top-seeded men’s pairs confirmed their berths for the next day competitions.
The weather took an ideal turn on the third day of tournament and players enjoyed the perfect rainy conditions over the frosty sand of Hotel Arkipelag’s courts. Brazil, France, China, Latvia, Russia, Spain, and United States were among victorious pairs of Thursday’s Main Draw at the US$380, 0000 PAF Open Tournament. In addition to the 32 matches for men, the event featured 16 confrontations for women on the same day where top-seeded pairs progressed to the “money” round matches. The PAF open is the 11th of 12 double-gender tournaments on the SWATCH FIVB World Tour Calendar.
The 18th-seeded Ces Brothers (Andy and Kevin) of France astonished everyone by their amazing win over teams from New Zealand and Germany. The Ces Brothers encountered with 15th-seeded Jason Lochhead and Kirk Pitman of New Zealand in the first match and shocked them with an upset win in two straight sets. The Ces Brothers dictated the game with their 21-19 and 25-23 points and claimed victory in 50 minutes. In the next match, the 2nd-seeded German Julius Brink and Jonas Reckermann received an embarrassing defeat from Andy and Kevin. The French posted 21-18 and 21-16 and clinched their first-ever victory against the German pair.
Likewise, 26th-seeded Alexey Pastukhov and Konstantin Semenov of Russia made a big break-through by casting a magic spell on Dutch and Canadian players. They defeated 7th-seeded Emiel Boersma and Daan Spijkers of Netherlands by hitting 2-1(21-19, 16-21, and 15-11) victory while their second match featured the fight with 23rd-seeded Christian Redmann and Rich VanHuizen of Canada. The 46-minutes play announced Alexey and Konstantin as winners. The Russian pair overcame the teams which were considered stronger than them.
The successful French and Russian teams have bigger challenge to meet on Friday afternoon. The 16-match Main Draw phase on Friday will define the fifth-place holders in PAF Open. The winner team will be guaranteed for the 5th spot. Both the French and Russians have been playing at this level for the first time in 2010 season.
Other than that, the top-seeded Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers of United States are scheduled to face 8th-seeded Benjamin Insfran and Bruno Oscar Schmidt of Brazil. It is one of the most sought matches in the tournament. In other winner’s bracket matches Friday, 4th-seeded Chinese Penggen Wu and Linyin Xu will clash with their rival pair, the 5th-seeded Adrian Gavira and Pablo Herrera of Spain. There is another important meeting planned between Brazilian 3rd-seeded Marcio Araujo/Ricardo Santos and 6th-seeded Martin Plavins/Janis Smedins of Latvia.
As the tournament is covering flights to the ending days, it is getting more exciting. The American Dalhausser and Rogers are the season’s fit players. They captured their 8th gold medal at Otera Open Kristiansand last week and set a record of maximum wins in a single season.
The Friday’s competitions will feature four winner’s bracket matches and also two elimination rounds. At the end of Friday’s play, only 12 pairs will stay in the tournament. The quarter-finals will be played on Saturday while the PAF Open tournament will bring out the final results on Sunday with the “final four” matches. Similarly women’s campaign will reach its end on Saturday with two semi-finals, the medal match and a third-place match. The winners of both genders will share $30,000 for first place prize.
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